Meta: Re-platforming an eCommerce store is nothing new, especially when retailers or businesses already have a lot of help from a shopping cart migration tool.
Entering the field of e-commerce allows businesses as well as retailers to take shortcuts to catch the trends that are happening in the market. The source of profits that it brings is huge, but it comes with extremely fierce competition. Therefore, taking advantage of all the advantages that webshops and e-commerce stores bring from information technology, customer sources to improve product quality need to be fully exploited.
And in this article, I will focus on clarifying a method to help you optimize scientific and technical achievements: shopping cart data migration (re-platforming of e-stores). In the past, data migration was often seen as the last resort that CIOs in charge wanted to use to help enhance the e-commerce experience because of its difficulty and expense. But a shopping cart migration service such as Next Cart has made this a lot easier.
If this is your first time approaching the concept of “migration” in e-commerce, then pay close attention. Many cool things are waiting for you!
What is shopping cart migration?
Shopping cart migration, e-commerce store re-platforming, or any other phrase you’ve heard related to data migration all refer to the same activity where the admin, team, etc. conduct the migration of webshop data from the current platform to another.
For e-commerce stores, the items that you need to pay attention to carry during migration include customer information, orders, products, blog posts, reviews, coupons as well as data and other needs for your business process.
As before, this is a very complicated job because you will need to compress a very large amount of data from your store in the form of CSV files.
This is very time-consuming and often causes users to “drop” data loss during migration. But thanks to the technologists for bringing us an eCommerce migration tool. So, what is a shopping cart migration tool? Those are simply the parts that maximize user support during shopping cart migration. Tools like Next Cart will help you define source carts, target carts, categorize entities to migrate, and much more.
When do you know you should migrate the shopping cart?
There is no definite deadline to follow for re-platforming your webshop or online store. In other words, it depends on how you feel about your current platform and the feedback from other users. It could be when your system is constantly in need of maintenance and fixes or your customers have bad feedback on page performance, missing important features like omnichannel support and easy integration of third-party systems… Here are the symptoms you need to watch out for to determine if re-platforming is a matter of life and death.
1. Slow page processing speed
You can be the administrator of a webshop, but you can also become an online customer when you shop online for yourself. And the truth is, no one likes to wait.
Speed becomes a huge advantage in the e-commerce market and this directly affects your SEO ranking when customers search. Too many images, flash content, or accompanying ads, too many third-party apps, or problems with JavaScrip… can be the main cause of this.
2. Poor integration
The utilities of the 3rd parties greatly support the e-commerce site. However, more and more add-ons and some platforms are adopting policies that limit the number of apps and add-ons that can be added.
This makes it difficult for the website to function as well as for the customer experience.
3. Too difficult to use
Some platforms require a certain knowledge of technology to use. And that sometimes makes users have to spend a certain fee to hire a separate technical team to take care of their webshop. For low-budget small and medium-sized businesses, it’s a nightmare.
4. Maintenance costs are too expensive
When you’re just starting a business and don’t have a lot of orders yet, it’s not possible to optimize your website maintenance costs. If the monthly payments for store maintenance go beyond the process for a long time, it means that the current e-commerce platform is too expensive for your business.
5. Poor website performance
You spend a lot of money to advertise and bring a large number of customers to your store. But your website cannot operate smoothly when the number of visitors is too large, especially during big sales such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Christmas.
That’s when a drastic change was needed.
6. Lack of reporting and data analysis capabilities
E-commerce has grown in recent years thanks to its focus on understanding market trends as well as shoppers’ psychology. This not only comes from the admin team but also has a lot of support from information technology applications, typical of which is the use of AI in customer data analysis. The creation of customer profiles, tracking the customer’s interest in the goods… becomes a vital factor.
Therefore, if your current platform does not meet this, it will be a huge advantage for your business.
7. Lack of compatibility with mobile devices
Mobile commerce is the driving force behind the development of many businesses. Multiple platforms are no longer relevant when you want to develop a phone-specific version or app.
The advantages that you get when re-platforming e-commerce
Once you’ve determined to re-platform your store, you can rest assured of the positives it brings.
1. Website maintenance is done better
A new platform that’s right for your store will cause fewer errors during operations. That means you will have to worry less about maintenance.
Errors can also be detected in a more timely manner for resolution. And of course, the costs incurred are therefore limited to ensure revenue for the store.
2. Improve website performance
New platforms built in recent years allow customers to visit the website smoothly even during peak sales. That is an extremely comfortable experience for the customer.
3. Various payment methods
Many platforms today prove their power when linked with a lot of online payment companies. Shopify, for example, not only has Shopify Payments but also integrates with more than 100 other payment providers around the world. This keeps your shoppers happier and also reduces cart abandonment rates.
Besides, the new e-commerce platforms also offer new features such as customer payment options without registration, third-party payment, order summary display, and shipping integration. will make the payment process simpler. Streamlined and faster steps increase customer conversion rates.
4. Optimizing the shopping experience through mobile devices
Another big advantage comes from change.
Making it easy for customers to shop over the phone helps increase traffic, increase order completion rates to bring in more revenue for the store.
5. New features and utilities
This is the biggest goal when businesses or retailers decide to re-platform their e-commerce stores. Reporting analytics is generated promptly so that merchants can timely track key metrics such as website traffic, conversion and re-order rates, net profit, and visit value.
In addition, the re-platform also makes the process of creating new categories and products easier, helping sellers to connect with social networking platforms to integrate omnichannel purchasing capabilities or create a blog for customers to understand more about the brand or store.
Many platforms like WordPress also offer thousands of free themes to give users the freedom to create more attractive storefronts.
6. Increase store information security
Of course, the re-platforming of the store will bring more policies to protect customer information. Data such as bank card information or delivery address is carefully encrypted to avoid leakage after the shopping process is complete.
Things to do before you intend to re-platform
This is a very important job that you need to pay close attention to make the process of re-platforming your e-commerce store go smoothly. But don’t worry too much, thanks to shopping cart migration tools, things won’t be so hectic anymore!
Make a list of the most important things about the migration process
Few people spontaneously change the platform of an e-commerce store just for the sake of it. Most have problems that need to be improved. And most of all, you are the one who understands the core as well as the issues going on on your webshop.
Write down those issues (big or small) directly and test them against other platforms to see what might be the right new home for you and your store.
Announce the migration process to everyone
The shop owner is not the only one affected by the migration process. Everyone needs a team when joining this industry. It can be a team of consultants, sales, or a team responsible for information technology. You work as a team and if you are the one with overall management responsibility, listen to them. Because sometimes there are many problems that you may not understand with them.
Customers can also become good advisors in this case. The results of a survey can show you weaknesses in your current software that you didn’t even know were there. They can therefore guide you when considering what other eCommerce platforms have to offer.
Back-Up Everything and the Quit Plan
While shopping cart migration tools are highly effective and get good reviews from users, I don’t think anyone is certain that something bad can happen. There is a lot of important data that you only regret when you lose it. So why don’t we choose a safe solution?
With a little foresight and the right technology, you can back up all the data you need – or all the data, for some time – before you even begin the conversion process.
Choose the right platform
In addition to the opinions of their teams, businesses or retailers can consult experts at companies providing migration services. For example, Next Cart, they have a team of experienced professionals and have been providing data migration services for approximately 10 years. Big ideas can emerge when you start a conversation.
Valuable help from shopping cart migration tools
As I said in the previous section, these tools give you extremely powerful help to make this already complex migration task extremely easy.
So how does the shopping cart migration tool help? Let’s take a look at Next Cart’s standard 3-step process.
Step 1: Select “departure point” and “destination point”
After selecting the Source Cart and Target Cart, you will be instructed to upload the KitConnect to the new website to fill in the site URL.
Step 2: Configure
This will be the step where you need to define the type and number of entities you want to migrate. Besides, there are Additional Options to complete the migration process.
Step 3: Migration
After completing the above two steps, all you have to do is press the button to start the migration process. Migration time depends on data volume.
When a dialog box with the message “Congratulations” appears, your data is ready for a new journey at a new platform.
Next Cart also offers an included Target store settings service to help you set up initial settings like a new store theme.
In addition, if you have any questions, you can find answers in the FAQ section.
Closing Thought
Changes are needed when the current platform has problems. And with the help of information technology achievements, re-platforming a new smart e-commerce store on a new platform will not be too much of a problem.
It doesn’t matter whether your data migrates to Shopify or Magento, what matters is which platform is right for you.
The Next Cart shopping cart migration tool will be your companion to help you solve all your troubles.
Contact us now to share your problems!
Thanks for reading!
